Pete Cosey, 1943-2012

Graydon Megan, Special to the Tribune

Jazz guitarist Pete Cosey used electronic distortion and innovative methods of stringing and tuning his guitar to impress his signature sound on recordings by artists from bluesmen Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf to jazz great Miles Davis.

"Pete's sound was something quite amazing," said Wendy Oxenhorn, executive director of the New York-based Jazz Foundation of America. "He took blues, funk, rap and jazz and combined it into a new sound."

"I describe his sound as Afro-spiritual," said bassist and composer Melvin Gibbs, who played with Mr. Cosey in the late 1980s in a trio called Power Tools. "I felt like he really captured what people are trying to get to when they go to church."

Mr. Cosey, 68, died Wednesday, May 30, of complications from surgery in Vanguard Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago, according to his daughter Mariama Cosey. He was a longtime resident of Chicago but most recently had been living in Evanston.

Mr. Cosey was born in Chicago, the only child of a piano-playing mother and a father who played saxophone professionally. Mr. Cosey learned music early, playing the violin before he went to grammar school, his daughter said.

His father died when Mr. Cosey was about 9 years old. He and his mother moved to Arizona, where he spent his teenage years. He began developing his unique sound by playing his guitar in the mountains around Phoenix.

"He believed in being creative and organic and finding a way to make the notes fit," his daughter said. He also believed everybody had a key, she said. "When we were babies, he'd play to see what our key was."

Raynard Miner, co-writer of hit songs including "Rescue Me" and "Higher and Higher," met Mr. Cosey in the early 1960s at Chess Records in Chicago, where Mr. Cosey was part of the studio band.

"Pete was one of the premier guitar players," Miner said. "He was inventive — he knew what to do with just one note. That one note would hang in your head."

Miner said Mr. Cosey played on the Fontella Bass recording of "Rescue Me" and also on the original recording of "Higher and Higher."

"He had a good ear for music," Miner said. "He was good at showing others what I was trying to get to with unfamiliar chords and meters."

Miner said Mr. Cosey introduced him to the sitar and amazed people at Motown with the sound. In addition to his work at Chess, where he played on albums including Muddy Waters' "Electric Mud," he took part in a number of recordings for Motown.

Mr. Cosey played on several Miles Davis albums in the 1970s, including "Get Up With It," "Dark Magus," "Agharta" and "Pangaea." He also played on the Grammy-nominated 2008 tribute compilation "Miles from India," which featured a number of former Davis sidemen and musicians from India.

"I always thought Pete was way ahead in his music. He was always moving forward," said Davis' nephew, drummer Vince Wilburn Jr., who with Mr. Cosey and others played a couple of tour dates in connection with the album.

When Miner's wife died in the late 1980s, Mr. Cosey helped him raise four children. "Pete had a very big heart. He came and stayed three or four months, helping me get my head around things," said Miner, who is vision-impaired.

Health problems in recent years had slowed Mr. Cosey down, but he had been playing in the Jazz Foundation's Agnes Varis Jazz and Blues in the Schools program.

"He would play at children's hospitals and schools, passing on this great music to young people," Oxenhorn said. "Bringing live music to kids made him so happy."

Mr. Cosey is also survived by daughters Aribania Cosey-Ewing, Dunni CoseyGay and Karumah Cosey; a son, Ishmak; and six grandchildren.

A memorial is set for 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, June 14, in the SGI-USA Culture Center, 1455 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago.